Dwell time: useful indicator, but not evaluate in isolation
What dwell time says, when it is helpful and why it should always be read in the context of intent and page goal.
The topic often decides whether content is only available or actually meets the search intention. Usually, the biggest lever lies in better tailoring, clearer utility and less in mere amount of text.
What dwell time says, when it is helpful and why it should always be read in the context of intent and page goal. This wiki page arranges the topic practically and shows, When priority arises, which mistakes are often and how you derive concrete measures from them.
Example: Two minutes in the open tab does not mean two minutes of reading
An article remains open while the user moves to another tab. Depending on the measurement system, this time flows differently into the statistics. Check the exact metric and its capture before evaluating content against an average.
Compare similar page types and complement meaningful actions such as contacting or downloading. A longer duration can indicate interest, but also comprehension difficulties. It is not an independent proof of better rankings.
Duration and SEO
Basically, the value is a ranking factor, but only one of many and not to be considered in isolation. Also, there is not the very simple connection that websites rank better the longer the users spend on them on average. This period of time can also be interpreted to the contrary:
- If users on a page feel bad due to an unfortunate menu structure, they dwell longer on it, but this does not speak for their quality.
- If the site answers their questions as desired lightning fast, a short dwell would not be an indication of their poor quality. Rather, the users were actually satisfied.
Those responsible at Google & Co. Of course, those who use certain algorithms to weight such values as the duration of the stay on a website are familiar with such effects. Therefore, they include other KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) in the evaluation. An important KPI, for example, is the bounce rate, which shows how many users leave the page without surfing it, even if their submenus should actually encourage such surfing.
If most users now spend a relatively long time on the site and a high bounce rate (two KPIs that actually contradict each other), this leads to the conclusion that the site has poor usability, users search for certain information for a longer period of time without result and then leave them frustrated. There is certainly a Google algorithm that draws such conclusions. Therefore, no KPI can be considered on its own.
Increase dwell time
Basically, it is valuable for SEO if users stay longer on a well-designed page with high usability due to the valuable content. So the question is, how do you tie them to the side? For this purpose, optimizers must know the expectations of their visitors who are looking for specific information on the website.
Sometimes they also have a specific purchase intention and should therefore quickly find or get to know the desired product, but also the product variety in this area. Sometimes they look for further information that is understandable to present. With these measures, the stay of users on a website can be extended:
- simple, intuitive, and therefore user-friendly website structure without dead ends
- valuable and clearly presented website content, including reader-friendly structured texts supplemented with videos, pictures and graphics
- optimised Rich snippets (which the user already sees in the search without clicking on the page) to bring interested parties to the page who are exactly interested in their content
Explicitly not effective are artificially inflated texts. They only annoy the users. These usually find out quite quickly that the desired information has been packed at the end of a long text (possibly still with the compulsion to call up next pages again and again), and quickly turn away. All sleight of hand tricks see through intelligent users today.